Gods of Mars – Last Font of 2015

Our last font of 2015 is a special pulp Science Fiction font based on the lettering from the cover of the 1918 edition of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic The Gods of Mars.

The novel is basically swords and sorcery in space, but it is part of the foundational legacy of Science Fiction. It has a unique Art Deco look, but the book was issued more than a decade before the acknowledged debut of the Art Deco movement. That makes it historically interesting, but its unusual features make it worth using.

Gods of Mars has the interesting feature that the characters are formed around very narrow drop out areas, so you get an interesting contrasting effect. There are also some unique character forms, like the overlapping M and W forms. The inset in the graphic to the right is of the original book cover. As you can see the font is very true to the design, but includes some regularizations for practical use.